Iowans aren't birdbrained when it comes to wind energy

President Donald Trump told the Cedar Rapids audience, “I don’t want to just hope the wind blows to light up your homes and your factories — as the birds fall to the ground.”

Iowa generates 36.6 percent of its electricity from wind. Are we in Iowa stupid for letting the wind light up our homes and factories? Are we cruel for not caring about the birds killed by wind turbines?

Let's assume the president really cares about birds and wants to make them winners. Blaming dead birds on windmills limits the scope of the problem. Around 10 billion birds live in North America (increasing to 20 billion at times). Each year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, around 500,000 birds die from wind turbines. Each year, a bird has about a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying in a wind turbine collision. What else is to blame for dead birds?

Blame cats. It’s estimated that cats kill 1.3 billion to 4 billion birds annually. If we pick the middle number, a bird is 5,300 times more likely to die by cat than by a wind turbine. Last week, our cats killed a robin. I scolded them. This week they killed a bunny that was eating my cabbages. Sometimes cats and energy sources are a mix of good and bad.

Blame windows. According to a 2014 study published in The Condor: Ornithological Advances, anywhere from 365 million to 988 million birds die from window collisions. There is a solution. A Baltimore oriole kept flying against our window. It was only a matter of time until he would hit the window too hard and end up dead. Taping a picture of a cat on the window stopped him from flying near the glass. Tax dollars for cat pictures might save as many bird lives as curtailing windmills.

Blame insecticides. Now we’re heading into a controversial area that shouldn’t be mentioned in Iowa. It’s been estimated that pesticides kill 72 million birds directly. This is a low number since it doesn’t include birds dying later at unfound locations or orphaned chicks left motherless. Once President Trump hears about this, he will probably want to ban neonicotinoids, the worst offender. A tiny grain of wheat treated with neonicotinoid can poison a bird.

Blame oil. We remember the BP Deepwater Horizon that blew more than 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been estimated that 200,000 birds died during the spill’s critical phase and more than 1 million more died later of spill’s effects. At least wind can’t spill.

Blame coal. Now we are getting serious. Trump “loves the coal miners.” Sadly loving birds (and possibly humans) and coal poses a conflict. Coal leads to habitat destruction, air pollution, coal ash spills, water pollution, coal dust, mercury deposition and climate change. The number of birds killed by wind and other renewable energy sources is a fraction of the estimated 7,900,000 killed by coal. Burning coal emits carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphuric acids, arsenic and ash. It increases the levels of greenhouse gasses. As our president brings back coal jobs, how much are we willing to spend to clean up the environment? Coal burns as the birds fall to the ground.

While cats and windows don’t pose a threat to humans, coal, oil and chemicals do. Therefore, Mr. President, thanks for worrying about birds, but we do hope your concern spills over into worrying about humans. In addition, Mr. President, we want you to know that people in Iowa are not cruel or stupid. Don’t assume we are getting our energy sources wrong.